Executive Summary
Sydney Water’s Partnering for Success program, or P4S, is an industry best practice model for asset management of infrastructure projects. It covers planning, design, construction, maintenance and facilities management, and shifts the traditional ‘risk transfer’ client-contractor mindset to integration, collaboration and building long-term supply chain capacity.
The largest consultant engagement in Australia by a water utility and a first for the industry in terms of its integrated nature, P4S’ seminal partnership program acts as a role model for the water industry to innovate, providing a new procurement and supply chain model for the water sector to follow.
1. Summary of the project
P4S is the largest infrastructure delivery partnership by a water utility in Australia, signing four 10-year agreements with 14 of the biggest professional services/construction firms globally. P4S delivers nearly AU$8 billion of infrastructure between 2020-2030. P4S enabled significant ramp-up in resourcing to deliver $1b investments in 2022, nearly tripling annual investment from $400m in 2019. P4S responds to the challenge of meeting record infrastructure delivery levels amid market capacity and capability pressures, and resource scarcity caused by severe global supply chain disruptions. P4S sets a global best practice for public-private partnerships in infrastructure delivery, building a resilient and future-proofed Greater Sydney.
2. Description of the project
Assurance and security through collaboration
P4S is designed to support Sydney Water enhance their asset management capabilities, simplifying procurement, optimising value throughout the supply chain and driving better, more sustainable, outcomes for customers through innovation. By locking in long term partnerships, P4S allows Sydney Water to deliver its unprecedented capital infrastructure program. It also provides certainty for Sydney Water’s partners, driving sustainable outcomes and efficiencies in delivery that come from long term mutual commitment.
The largest consultant engagement in Australia by a water utility and a first for the industry in terms of its integrated nature, P4S’ seminal partnership program acts as a role model for the water industry to innovate, providing a new procurement and supply chain model for the water sector to follow.
Stronger together
The Planning partnership between Aurecon and Arup is responsible for planning work across all of Sydney Water’s footprint, bringing consistency and alignment into planning and early design work for capital projects.
Partnering for Success’ delivery partners are made up of three Regional Delivery Consortia (RDCs):
- North: Confluence Water (Downer Utilities, Jacobs, Ventia)
- South: Delivering 4 Customers – D4C (Comdain Infrastructure, John Holland, ServiceStream, WSP)
- West: West Region Delivery Team (Fulton Hogan Utilities, Abergeldie Contractors, Programmed Facility Management, Stantec, Atlas)
P4S’ innovative asset management model is grounded by these long-term arrangements, providing security and assurance that enables the RDCs to:
- share knowledge
- access and secure people with the right skills
- enhance capacity and capabilities to provide reliable water supplies for growing cities.
The consortium established through P4S is bringing together the very best innovations and expertise from across the public and private sectors to deliver important and essential services for our communities today and in the future.
Through these partnerships, each of the RDCs provides design, construction and asset management services for capital and operational projects. The partnership approach means Sydney Water can scale up and down as needed for a one-team approach with shared risk and alignment around outcomes.
From a community perspective, each region in Sydney Water’s operating area has a dedicated and fully integrated team, enabling stronger relationships with residents, businesses, councils and local infrastructure providers. This local focus ensures a deep understanding of the operating environment, providing the best results throughout the lifecycle of Sydney Water’s delivery assets for our customers, communities and the environment.
Efficiency through ingenuity
The first of its kind, the P4S model is the first to successfully incorporate a consortium of design, delivery, and maintenance for an Australian utility company. The program transforms the business from a transactional model to a partnering enterprise model, committed to collaborative contracting. Sydney Water’s new partnerships are the first in Australia to use the New Engineering Contract 4 (NEC4) suite of contracts, which incentivise efficiency, consistency and innovation. By taking a long-term view to partnering and providing certainty to Sydney Water and its partners, customers will benefit – making use of asset management best practice through efficiency, innovation, collaboration and shared knowledge.
For specialised goods and services, Sydney Water and its partners have access to a group of pre-qualified suppliers through P4S’s Shared Purchasing. Shared Purchasing applies common standards and specifications by category, driving whole lifecycle efficiency. By using pre-qualified suppliers, Sydney Water and its partners can be assured that suppliers meet the safety, financial and quality standards required. The model is an exemplar of how Sydney Water is working with the private sector to bring world’s best practice in service delivery and asset management by building a resilient and future-proofed water system.
From conception to delivery, P4S enables Sydney Water as a learning organisation
During the procurement process for each engagement (including the planning partnership and RDC procurements), interactive dialogue processes further unpacked reporting structures, ways of working, communication methods and styles and approvals.
This allowed Sydney Water and its partners to get to know ways of working before agreements were in place, allowing the selection of the partners that best fit Sydney Water’s needs.
Key policies and procedures were workshopped both during the procurement process, and on appointment, with each team co-designing its key documents, making them their own while at the same time meeting Sydney Water’s quality, safety and financial requirements. In addition to this process, the ‘best bits’ of each party’s proposed policies, procedures, communication methods and other management practices are shared as lessons learned across the business.
In terms of asset management, each region and the planning partnership have a set management operating structure, which includes a series of meetings to cover all elements of performance. These are completed for each region or contract, as well as at a project and program level.
In addition, holistic performance management procedures are in place at an enterprise level, and these are overseen by various steering committees that include leadership representatives from each party. These committees not only perform an oversight function but also provide the opportunity for continuous improvement and information sharing.
Results that speak for themselves
By changing to a long-term relationship-based approach, Partnering for Success has been able to seamlessly bring Aurecon and Arup experts into Sydney Water to deliver rapid planning, significantly enhancing Sydney Water’s output capabilities, assurance and risk management and knowledge sharing capabilities.
Since the full model went live, the teams have:
- Reached $1 billion in project pipeline in just 19 months (double the pre-P4S run rate).
- Awarded over 400 projects, started construction in 96 projects and delivered over 210,000 maintenance work orders in the last 20 months.
- Established three regional offices and onboarded over 1,000 employees working in a fully integrated environment.
- Prequalified 600 suppliers as part of Shared Purchasing, with 400 contracts awarded .
- As a member of Supply Nation, established relationships with 10 First Nations owned businesses.
- Uplifted HSE maturity of our supply chain, including a lower total recordable injury frequency rate (TRIFR) from 7.30 to 5.13 over 2021-22.
- Started the integrated project controls (or IPC) project to share consistent reliable data across the project life cycle.
This is especially significant given the last two years have coincided with significant challenges, including four flood events and the pandemic.
3. Opinion as to specific contribution made by the nominated organisation
Planning Partnership
Rowena Walker, Managing Director NSW & ACT, Aurecon
The Sydney Water Planning Partnership is the largest consultant engagement in Australia by a water utility and a first for the industry in terms of its integrated nature. The partnership has provided an opportunity for the water industry to innovate, providing a new procurement and supply chain model for the water sector to follow. By changing to a long-term relationship-based approach, Partnering for Success has been able to seamlessly bring Aurecon and Arup experts into Sydney Water to deliver rapid planning, significantly reducing the time in which concept designs are taken to market.
Kevin Werksman, Managing Director Water, Aurecon
Sydney Water’s relationship-based procurement model was designed with the goal to jointly focus us on how to sustain and enhance services for customers and community. Our focus has also included how to deliver time and cost efficiencies in sustaining capital – planning for asset renewals and augmentations – and in new infrastructure development.
The partnership approach means Sydney Water can scale up and down as needed for a one-team approach with shared risk and alignment around outcomes. This creates value for money, a greater customer and community focus, as well as the opportunity to leave a legacy for future generations.
Regional Delivery Consortia (RDCs)
Phil Jones, Area Delivery Manager, Delivering for Customers (D4C)
The south region has the largest number of assets in the Greater Sydney area with 246 wastewater pumping stations, 43 water pumping stations and 84 reservoirs. This entails a great deal of complexity and requires diligent management of maintenance, processes, systems, and workforce utilisation. We have fostered a collaborative approach to identifying challenges and opportunities, workshopping solutions and implement changes that deliver world-class water services to our region’s customers.
Gavin Bolton, Executive Director, Confluence Water
Partnering for Success has given the North Delivery Team a vision of integration, consistency and elevated our delivery of value for customers. With P4S we are building a culture of empowerment and accountability and we continue to grow and build a team where our people are enabled to achieve their goals, love coming in to work, and are committed our mission of delivering world-class water services.
Iain McGregor, Area Delivery Manager, West Region Delivery Team (WRDT)
We are well into year three with many examples showing the success of P4S and the NEC4 collaborative framework delivering for our customers through wet weather, pandemic and hyper market activity. Prior the commencement of year three, we had already secured 80% of our Capital Expenditure Forecast, working more closely with the Planning team, which is the very essence of what Partnering for Success is all about.
Creating the right culture and displaying the right behaviours is integral to seeking opportunities for innovation. WIN (West Innovation Network), our Innovation Committee, is bursting with innovative ideas. We have a very strong safety reporting culture within our team. This positive safety culture promotes a sense of commitment to safety and helps encourage employee participation and accountability in workplace safety.
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